Cricket Blog

You do feel sorry for the big man. Coming after a long injury layoff, Flintoff got his best ever ODI wickets hall in the 2nd ODI against India. But that came at a heavy price.

While chasing a shot that was headed to the boundary, Freddie dived at the last moment and crashed into the advertising boards. Although the boards are soft, the frame is pretty hard and TV replays showed that he had crashed his left knee straight into the frame.

This is very unfortunate as he was looking to come back into some solid form with his first ever 5 wicket hall. We all know that he was the one of the main reasons why England failed to get India out cheaply in the test series.

Jon Lewis has been called in as replacement for the next two matches. Everyone will be keeping their fingers crossed that it is not a serious injury and that he may yet have a part to play in the ongoing ODI series.

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With the match scheduled start in a few hours, I wanted to have a look at the injury concerns for both the squads. The home team, ie England, will always have an advantage as they can always call backup players anytime. It gets more serious for the visitors, if they have two or more players down with injury.

The latest to be injured is Matthew Hoggard from England. Its believed that he has back spasms and has been sent to the hospital for further analysis. Here is a list of the players who are not fully fit:

England:

1. Mathew Hoggard - back spasms
2. Steve Harmison - groin
3. Andrew Flintoff - ankle

India:

1. Rahul Dravid - calf strain

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Over half of the Indian squad is down with viral flu on the eve of their first match against South Africa. Here is a list of the casualties:

1. Mahendra Singh Dhoni (vice captain + wicket keeper)
2. Sachin Tendulkar (Batsman)
3. Rudra Pratap Singh (Bowler)
4. Piyush Chawla (Bowler)
5. Robin Uthappa (Batsman)
6. Ajit Agarkar (Bowler)
7. Ramesh Powar (Bowler)

Players who are not feeling too well are captain Rahul Dravid, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh and S Sreesanth. Suffice to say that a bowling attack that was looking weak and inexperienced from the start has now been completely decapitated due to this run of illnesses.

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The PCB keeps finding itself in more and more trouble. This time the ICC has demanded proof of the so-called “injuries” to Shoaib and Asif before their replacements can be added to the Pakistani squad. If PCB fails to provide sufficient evidence that Shoaib and Asif are injured then Pakistan will have a 13 member squad to play with. This will surely be a disaster for their campaign and this is another instance of complete lack of professionalism from the PCB. Rather than suspending Shoaib and Asif, they are risking the future of their entire cricket administration.

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This time its Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq who has withdrawn from the World Cup due to a fractured knee. He has been advised not to play for three weeks and that literally means the end of his World Cup campaign. This also spells trouble for Inzy who may have to deal with the absence of Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif.

Azhar Mahmood will be replacing Razzaq. This latest injury is a serious blow to Pakistan’s bowling attack as Razzaq can not only bowl at 140kph consistently but he is also an explosive batsman and a decent fielder.

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